Reflection's half
by Crescent Luna Moon
Summary: Mulan is unsure what her path is, she know she isn't wife material and can't bring honor to her family that way, but...what is her calling? Maybe she'll find out when she takes her father's place as a warrior of China to fight off the Huns.
1. Chapter 1: Bring Honor to Us All

**Title: **Reflection's half

**Rating:** T for now M later, _much _later

**Pairing:** Shan-Yu/Mulan _though this is much, much later_. Some Shang/Mulan(Ping) flirting, though nothing will come of it except Shang being confused and not understanding what he's going through.

**Summary:** Mulan is unsure what her path is; she knows she isn't _wife_ material and can't bring honor to her family that way, but...what is her calling? Maybe she'll find out when she takes her father's place as a warrior of China to fight off the Huns.

**Chapter 1:** Bring Honor to Us All

She stared at the darkness of her was early, _really _early. The moon wasn't even _close _to hitting the opposite horizon that matched the one it rose from. Mulan sighed and sat up on her bed, knowing that she would never be able to sleep more than she had already, she was too nervous to. Today, when the sun was risen, she'd go to town and get ready for, she sighed again at this thought, the judgement of the matchmaker. The youngest of the Fa family didn't believe she was ready for this, ready to be matched off to be married. She was still young! Mulan knew she was rebellious, wild and free spirited instead of well behaved, docile wife material.

'_I hope I just don't mess up _too _badly''_ Mulan thought as she brought out some writing utensils and ink making set so she could make some notes that she wouldn't forget things she had been taught, thank the ancestors for scrolls that had things from the teachings her mother taught her. She dipped the brush in the headmade ink and then swirled it to gather up the ink while she reread the scroll.

"Respectful to your husband and honorable as a woman to your family" she murmured and sighed a little at that, at _husband_.

"I'm not sure about this" she said before using her left arm as a note scroll. She read a few lines and skipped them before going on to find the "important" parts of the scroll. barely noticing her mother coming in and giving her, her morning rice. The smell of it caught Mulan's attention a little bit later after it cooled and she looked up, flushing a little as her stomach growled at the sight of it. Reaching out, Mulan took the rice and chopsticks that her mother gave her before she and Grandma Fa went to the city to save her spot for the dressing proportion of the matchmaking. Going back to the scroll, Mulan smiled a little as she read it, mimicking her mother, Li, from what she remembered.

"A honorable wife must be" she paused as she started playing with her rice, taking a bite before messing with a single grain, "Quiet and demure ... graceful, polite, delicate, refined, poised ..." she smirked as she balanced it. Her eyes lit up as the teachings caught up to her, even if she wasn't ready for this she didn't want to dishonor her family.

"Punctual!" she said with a smile while marking her arm, which had several notes that she had gathered throughout the morning. Her narrowed, dark eyes widened as she gasped when the family rooster crowed to announce the time.

'_I'm going to be late!'_ she thought, "Aaaiiieee" she said to herself while blowing on her arm and calling out for her dog.

"Little Brother! Little Brother!" she called, blowing on her arm some more, "Little-" she paused and sighed in relief when she saw the pup laying in his respected spot.

"Ah! There you are!" she said, cooing sweetly at the pup as he woke up and began his barking and tail wagging at the attention. Mulan moved over to the storage for the chicken feed and started to pull out a bag of grain.

"Who's the smartest doggy in the world?" she cooed again, "C'mon, smart boy! Can you help me with my chores today?" she asked him as he yipped at her. Mulan tossed the bag behind Little Brother and tied it to the leather they used as a collar for when he needed to be harnessed in public. She didn't pause as she thought about making Little Brother move quickly and added an attachment of a hanging bone above the pup, getting him to growl and start chasing it despite the bone just being above his head. Mulan watched him run into the wall and out the door before quickly hurrying into her room and changing to some daily clothes and getting her father's tea.

Chicken feed was scattered all over the grounds from where Little Brother ran and Mulan giggled lightly as she caught sight of him sitting by the ancestor temple, trying to get the bone. She took pity on him and stopped from her destination to her father, who was no doubt praying for help and luck...for her, and pushed the bone down to Little Brother so he could enjoy it.

"Father, I brought you some - Whoop!" she exclaimed when she bumped into her father, Zhou, and let the tea cups clatter to the floor, luckily Zhou caught the teapot, she didn't want to fetch another and boil more tea, she was behind as it was.

"Mulan..." Zhou sighed at his daughter, his only, precious child.

"I brought a spare!" she said cheerfully, inwardly glad that she _did. _

"Mulan..." Zhou tried to get Mulan's attention, knowing that she was almost out of time to get to town.

"Remember the doctor said three cups of tea in the morning" she recited the doctor's orders for Zhou's injuries that never healed from the war he already served and for his aging body. She ignored her father's attempts to get her attention, she knew what he was going to say, in favor of pouring the tea that hung from her father's cane.

"Mulan."

"And three at night" she smiled softly at him as she handed Zhou the cup.

"Mulan. You should already be in town" he said, a little flustered that Mulan was still at home when _today _was important for every young woman in Mulan's age group, "We're counting on you..." he started to recite an old message he _knew_ that Mulan had to know by heart as he recited it so much throughout her life.

"To uphold the family honor" Mulan finished for him, inwardly sighing, more pressure and weight on her shoulders, joy, "Don't worry, Father. I won't let you down" she promised while tugging her sleeve over her note covered arm, knowing that if she didn't...she'd be nothing more than a waste in the Fa lineage.

"Wish me luck" she said as she turned to head to Khan, the family's young stallion.

"Hurry!" Zhou called to her, knowing that she heard when she waved back to him before hopping onto Khan's back, the stallion had been waiting for her in his stall and was ready to get Mulan to where she needed to go. He, like all the other animals that had a sort of...bond...with Mulan didn't want her to fail, she was precious and had so much promise in her. He ran outside the Fa family grounds and down the road to town, running on thin wires of time that was borrowed. They hurried through the fields outside of the community outside the town, Khan snatched a small bit of wheat as he passed and whinnied happily when Mulan chuckled at him.

When they arrived in town, they saw the most peculiar sight, though it wasn't _that _peculiar when Mulan and Khan heard, _**"This cricket's a lucky one!"**_ from the wreckage that they came upon at the predetermined meet point for today.

'_Grandma, you never fail to surprise me'_' Mulan thought as she and Khan arrived to Li, her mother. She stopped Khan and jumped off him, landing and spreading her arms up in a sort of victory and announcement style.

"I'm here!" she said happily, closing her eyes before opening them and frowning in defeat at the look on Li's face.

"What?" she asked her. Li looked at her daughter's hair that had bits of wheat, was wind whipped and tousled by the short journey from home to here.

"But, Mama, I had to-" Mulan tried to explain to her mother, only to get cut off and dragged inside.

"None of your excuses. Now let's get you cleaned up" Li told her, sort of scolding her for being _almost_ late.

'_She's problematic at times, but she _does _try her hardest'_ Li told herself as Mulan was stripped and practically thrown into the bath by Jun*, smirking at the small justice that came from Mulan shaking at the cold temperature of the water.

"It's fr-eezing!" she exclaimed.

"It would have been warm if you were here on time" she told her, feeling a tiny amount of glee fill her at the defeated pout on her daughter's face. Fen* and Min*, Jun's assistants, waited nearby for when Jun needed their help, mostly for when Jun needed to get Mulan's hair done. Jun poured body and hair oils that would make Mulan's body clean and smell nice over Li's daughter and cleaned her. Jun scrubbed at Mulan's head, mixing the oils into a sudsy substance before flicking the rest of it off before pouring some water over Mulan's head to wash most of it out. Li, having grabbed a scrubbing brush, set to help Jun out, but frowned as she flipped the arm she was at over and saw some inks that were started to smudge from the water.

'_Don't tell me'_ Li thought to herself before getting Mulan's attention, "Mulan, what's this?" she asked.

"Ah. Notes" the youngest Fa said softly, "In case I forget something." Li wasn't impressed as Jun continued her cleaning of Mulan.

"Hold this" Grandma Fa stated, pushing the caged cricket into Li's grasp, "We're going to need more luck that I thought" the elderly woman then left with a goal set in mind.

'_I shouldn't even begin to wonder what she's going to go after'_ Li thought to herself, simply ignoring the retreating figure of her mother-in-law as she held the cricket and watched as Mulan was dried. Fen and Min grabbed Mulan right after she was put into a temporary robe and had her hair pulled up and tied before they sent off to Huan-yue's* dress shop for fitting. She was glad that these women were her friends and owed her favors, otherwise the Fa family would be down some coins to prepare Mulan for the matchmaker.

"I pray for luck to be bestowed upon your family, Li" Jun whispered as she began to go to Huan-yue. The middle-aged woman nodded, knowing that her family would need it, Mulan may be a beautiful and graceful girl, but she was very rebellious and wild, only Zhou could calm her wild spirit with his presence. Li put the thought out of her mind as she went to Huan-yue's shop and saw that Huan-yue and her daughter, Niu*, were slipping a beautiful gown onto Mulan, tying it around her waist, leaving her with a shortness of breath from the sudden shrinkage, to emphasize that she had _good _childbearing hips that would give any man several children, especially sons.

Mulan looked ready to just give up and stop, but a look from her mother when she was pulled from Huan-yue's shop over to Xin's* little store to help with Mulan's makeup, made her stop and continue on. The young Fa followed her mother and watched as two little boys did a mock battle with wooden swords and frowned when they stole a doll from a little girl. She grabbed the doll from the boys as they passed her and handed it back to the girl, who smiled and hugged the doll that was obviously precious to her before she was dragged to the next place.

Xin sat Mulan down and started painting her face white, a sign of pureness, adding dark black for shades and emphasis on her eyes, then a light blush to add color on her cheeks, blend with the small amounts of blue of her dress and offset the golden earrings. Red lip-paint was the last bit to pull it all together and show the fiery passion she had as a lover, a woman and a _hopefully_ soon-to-be wife. Mulan frowned at the small mirror that Xin held to show her the hard work to paint her up and decided to rebel just a small bit and pull a little bit of her hair out of the strand and let it slid to hover over her left eye, curving upward a little, her mother ignored it since it made Mulan happy and didn't mess up anything _important._

Her mother unwrapped a family pendant hairpiece from the cloth she had it in and slipped in next to her hair bun. Li smiled at her daughter happily, she looked like a bride, hopefully she would impress Tai*, the matchmaker.

"There" she whispered, "You're ready" Li smiled at Mulan, who returned it with a little nervousness.

"Not yet!" Grandma Fa returned from her exploits, victorious with the amount of "luck" she bought from around town, "An apple for serenity" Grandma Fa muttered while shoving an apple into Mulan's mouth, who was grateful to have a bit more food in her stomach since she didn't get much rice before she had to leave from her note gathering.

"A pendant for balance" she slipped the pendant into the slip around Mulan's waist, the older woman didn't think that Mulan needed so much emphasis on her hips rather than her overall look, but she couldn't voice her opinion, it was far too late for her to do so.

"Beads of jade for beauty" she smiled at her granddaughter, the only grandchild she had that tried so hard to bring honor to the family and make everyone proud, who often ended up hurt, humiliated and upset with herself when things went bad, much like she had been when she was younger, but Mulan was more free in spirit than she had been and far more bright and beautiful as well.

'_A nature's naturally beautiful spirit'_ she thought sweetly as she continued to deck Mulan out with nic-nacs to help her.

"You must proudly show it" she said to Mulan, who's smile lit up her face as she relaxed some around her grandmother as the elderly woman went around and grabbed the cricket in the small cage.

"Now, add a cricket, just for luck" she slipped it into the waist slip and smacked Mulan's bum to get her going and to give her courage in her relax and playful nature she now had, "and even _you_ can't blow it" Grandma Fa said before Mulan stood up and started to go down to join the other girls.

'_Ancestors, hear my plea, help me not to make a fool of me and not to uproot my family tree, keep my Father standing tall' _she sent the small prayer to the ancestors that hadn't been in her favor since she was very young, _**"MULAN!"**_ the youngest Fa suddenly heard her mother's voice and turned to see her running towards her, carrying the umbrella she forgot.

'_Shoot!'_ she thought as she grabbed it from her mother and started running through the streets after the other girls, quickly catching up to them. The girls, from what she saw, was _far_ more beautiful, calm, elegant, docile and _everything_ that Mulan was not. She felt a little depressed at the sight, she was plain looking in comparison, then started shaking herself from the thought and had determination in her eyes as they came up to Tai's settlement in the center of the city. Mulan wasn't sure what to do as her nerves came back, despite her fiery will, and watched as the other girls gracefully flipped the umbrellas out, copying them quickly, and kneeling down to cover themselves with the opening just as Tai opened the door to begin the major moment.

Li and Grandma Fa stood back and watched with the rest of the awaiting mothers and some single fathers as Tai pulled a portable writing plate from her voluptuous waist and a brush from behind her ear. Their hearts pounded in their chests for the same reason, Mulan was to be first since their name was far higher than the rest of the girls, and therefore didn't get a chance to settle her nerves more and ready herself.

"Fa, Mulan" the hefty woman called out and Mulan, bouncing on nerves and willful energy, jumped up and shouted, "Present" before she needed to.

"Speaking without permission" Tai said and Mulan mentally scolded herself while saying "Oops" aloud and folding her umbrella as she moved up towards Tai.

"Who spit in her bean curd?" Grandma Fa asked Li in good nature before the door closed.

'_Ancestors..._please_ help my daughter'_ Li and Zhou both prayed from where they were currently at and Grandma Fa prayed, _'Help her towards what she needs to do'_ as they began the long wait.

* * *

**Me: **Ah...hmmm...yeah it's been _awhile_ hasn't it? Ehhhh hehe, well all I can say is that I've been busy with school and work and sort of had a dry spell of inspiration for my other stories sadly _**-pouts-**_ so this one birthed itself to give you _something_ to deal with until my lack of ideas ends, shouldn't be _too _much longer since I go on break within the next week and I think better that way without needing to remember so many things for my major right away. So...yeah I hope you forgive me for that dry spell and accept this, even if it is Het and not something I have messed with yet.

**Note:**

With the names, I hate characters not having names so I gave the women, matchmaker included, names to give you something to remember them by at least, even if they are minor.

**Name meanings:**

**Jun** - Truthful

**Fen **- Fragrant

**Min** - Quick, Sensitive

**Huan-yue** - Happiness, joyful

**Niu** - Girl

**Xin** - New

**Tai** - Big


	2. Failure With The Matchmaker

**Title: **Reflection's half

**Rating:** T for now M later, _much _later

**Pairing:** Shan-Yu/Mulan _though this is much, much later_. Some Shang/Mulan(Ping) flirting, though nothing will come of it except Shang being confused and not understanding what he's going through.

**Summary:** Mulan is unsure what her path is; she knows she isn't _wife_ material and can't bring honor to her family that way, but...what is her calling? Maybe she'll find out when she takes her father's place as a warrior of China to fight off the Huns.

**Chapter 2:** Failure With The Matchmaker

'_Stupid, stupid, speaking _before_ I need to'_ Mulan scolded herself while following Tai inside. The door closed behind them, sealing them from those outside so she could "impress" the hefty woman without disturbance. She looked down at the ground like she was suppose to and because she _really _didn't wish to look up at the woman who was ultimately deciding if she was to be a future wife or not. When Tai put her hand under Mulan's chin, she had little to no choice when it came to having the matchmaker looking at her, examining her. Mulan flickered her head away so she didn't have to look at the larger woman's face, really _she _was a matchmaker and was judged other women to see if they were "wife" material?

"Huh, Hmm, too skinny" Tai noted aloud and started quickly jotted a few characters down on her portable note scroll. Inwardly, Mulan scowled at the comment.

'_Too skinny?!'_ She screamed inwardly then felt a brief moment of depression hit her when Tai said, "Hmph, not good for bearing sons."

'_Is that a _bad _thing really? My Mama only could have me...then again...' _Mulan thought before noticing that the cricket had escaped the cage and lept onto Tai's shoulder while she was scribbling. Reaching out, Mulan caught it loosely in her sleeve covered palm and tried to put it back in the cage, yet...it leapt away from her and Mulan had catch it again and again until finally she quickly put it into her mouth, just as Tai turned around.

'_Ugh'_ She thought as it started roll over her tongue, trying to escape, _'This could be bad.'_

"Recite the final admonition" the matchmaker told her. Mulan smiled at her, she knew this...sort of. The young Fa pulled out a fan that was slipped into her dress sleeve and covered her face before spitting the cricket out without Tai noticing. Fanning her face, Mulan started to recite the bits she knew of the requested admonition.

"Fulfill your duties calmly and re...f-" she stumbled and quickly looked at her arm, which was smudged from her bath, luckily it was mostly readable down to the last bit, which wasn't what she really needed just yet, "respectfully. Reflect before you snack" she stopped for a moment when that didn't sound right and glanced back at her arm and quickly fixed her stumble.

"Act!" she said a little louder than she needed, getting Tai's attention to where the matchmaker marked her down for stumbling, "This shall bring you honor and glory!" Mulan quickly ran through the rest, sighing as she got through it without a huge mess up like she had thought she was going to make.

'_Maybe I can get through this'_ she said as she became a little more cheerful and semi-relaxed then noticed that Tai was looking at her before she grabbed her arm and flickered it over to look at her fan before taking it and looking at both sides to make a note of it. The larger woman looked at Mulan and received a big, nervous smile, like the matchmaker didn't know that the young Fa was nervous, every woman was, but she couldn't reassure any of them, if they were bred and trained right they _should_ pass her test. Tai pulled Mulan behind her over to the next proportion of the test and sat her down before releasing her arm, not seeing the ink smear onto her hand. She sat across from Mulan and started speaking again.

"Now, pour the tea" she sat the teapot in front of the younger woman and motioned with her inked hand, "To please your future in-laws you must demonstrate a sense of dignity" she said while rubbing her face a little with her hand and smearing the ink with her fingers to give her an image of a man's beard, which was causing Mulan to stare at her with utter horror and shock, spilling the tea in front of her, luckily it wasn't a big enough of a puddle to be noticed from where Tai was and quickly fixed it to where it was pouring into the cup.

"and refinement. You must also be poised" Tai stated to Mulan, believing that the young Fa could pass...barely. Mulan looked down when Tai was starting to reach for the tea cup and saw the cricket sitting in it and relaxing in the tea.

'_Cào*!'_ Mulan cursed mentally as Tai picked up the tea and brought it towards herself.

"Um, pardon me" timidly Mulan spoke in a soft manner to get Tai's attention before she...drank the cricket.

"And silent!" was Tai's harsh comment to silence Mulan before she smelled the herbal tea with a smile on her face, making her seem like a nice person rather than a strict matchmaker. Hesitantly, Mulan reached for the cup while saying a little louder than her last motion to get the larger woman's attention for the problem in the tea, "Could I just take that back?...One moment." They tugged at the cup in either direction for a moment, Tai was wondering what the younger woman was doing, didn't she want to pass?, until she became angered when it slipped from Mulan's grasp and flew out of hers to land on her chest and soak her top.

A gasp was heard from the younger female while Tai glared at her and nearly spitting out, "Why you clumsy-" she paused when she felt something move in her top, tickling her skin and startling her. The matchmaker started jumping and flinching while trying to get whatever it was out of her top then accidently knocked over the pot of coals onto the floor and tripped herself to land on the coals in a sitting position. She cried out and jumped up, trying to cool her inflamed and stinging bottom, unaware of Mulan behind her, _trying _to help. That is...until her clothing flickered into being on fire, which made her scream at the sudden increase in heat and rapidly spreading flame. She ran towards the door, knowing that all the people outside could help her, but when Tai slammed into the door, and screamed for someone to put it out, she was met with a bunch of tea slashing in her face and clothing, which _did_ put the fire out, but didn't soothe her anger now.

Tai caught Mulan putting the teapot in her hand and moving away, humiliated at the outcome, which suited the matchmaker just fine at the moment as she turned and watched with hateful eyes when Mulan moved to her family representatives and moved down towards her and snarled at her. She started shouting at the young Fa, "You are a disgrace!" In her anger, Tai threw the teapot against the ground, smashing it into so many pieces that it would never be put back together, "You may look like a bride, but you will **_never_ **bring your family honor!" she stated, which was quite harsh, but she could care less right now, she was hurt, humiliated and just wanted to get cleaned up before she moved onto the next woman. The larger woman moved towards the entrance of her estate and slammed the doors behind after she entered, leaving Mulan at the hands of the town, who were speaking in hushed tones about the incident, making Mulan flush under her makeup in so much embarrassment that she wondered if it was showing through.

"Lets go, Mulan" Li said to her daughter, feeling her embarrassment easily just like Grandma Fa did, who was glaring at each person that was looking at them and trying to soothe her granddaughter. They went to Jun's shop and picked up Khan, passing more whispering and glances before they exited town and headed back to their family estate in the country. Mulan was silent as she moved to lean against the stallion as they walked. What was she going to do now? She failed, horribly, to be proven that she was bride material and even had the comment that she'd never bring honor to her family, publically!

'_Maybe I should have stayed in bed today'_ Mulan thought, _'or better yet...'_ she started thinking of things that were overly negative before they switched to her father.

'_Ohh Baba...I'm so, so sorry'_ she said mentally, she had basically promised that she wouldn't let him down and she had broken, no _shattered_ was a better word. Mulan had _shattered_ that right in the beginning! Right when she was almost late to her appointments. A sad air of depression fell upon Mulan as she went and leaned against Khan more, willing the stallion to slow their speed more. Even if she wanted to get home and hide from the embarrassing incident, she didn't want to face her father's disappointment.

Li and Grandma Fa stared at Mulan then looked at each other and sighed softly to themselves, had it been too much to ask for a little faith to be put into the girl? No, Mulan had done what she needed to do, things just...didn't go in her favor, much like everything else. Li lowered her head more and looked at the ground a little while Grandma Fa was thinking to herself to cheer herself up and _maybe _find a solution to cheer up Mulan.

'_Being a bride probably wasn't her calling, the ancestors would have helped her more if it had been her calling...wouldn't they?'_ she asked herself, maybe she had angered the spirits of their ancestors earlier with stating that they were dead, but...they _were_ dead, they couldn't help much other than give blessings, yet hadn't brought Zhou back from the war when he finished? Grandma Fa was conflicted and sighed to herself before letting it go, the ancestors knew what to do, if Mulan wasn't meant to be a bride then she wasn't mean to be one...simple as that.

'_Simple as that'_ she said to herself softly before looking up to the compound of their home. Behind her and Li, Mulan closed her eyes so she didn't have to see the doors of the gate and stopped with Khan while the doors were opened by her mother and her grandmother stood next to her before she was coaxed into the compound grounds. She looked in and felt sadness wash over her when she saw her father standing in the front of the house, smiling at her. Mulan looked away in shame and moved towards Khan's stall while Li and Grandma Fa went towards the house to inform Zhou the...unfortunate outcome, and to give the young Fa some space.

Khan butted his head against Mulan a little, but she just rubbed his forehead and pushed him inside before removing his bridle from his mouth so he could eat without having to maneuver around the obtrusive device. The black and white stallion watched as Mulan moved away from his stall, grabbing the cricket cage, which held the little devil that had caused some of the mishap, though Mulan didn't blame the little bug for what happened, he was in a cage and had wanted out, much like she had felt when inside Tai's estate. She lowered herself towards a leaf and opened the cage, setting the little cricket free, then put it down on the ground so she could continue on, she'd pick it up when she went towards the house.

A sigh escaped her as she started to move towards the bridge that crossed over the large pond and carefully moved towards the middle and peered over the side. She looked at herself and saw...someone. Someone that was covered in a mask that wasn't her, white face, small bits of color, that was a different woman that seemed promising, that _could _potentially bring honor to her family and be a _marvelous _bride. Yet...it wasn't _her_, that mirror image on the water wasn't Fa Mulan, the failure, the dishonorable, an overall _waste_ of life. She shook a little and tried not to cry as she started to remove the jewelry that Grandma Fa gave her. Breathing in a shaky fashion, Mulan looked over towards her family's ancestral protector, the Great Stone Dragon.

'_I'm just a failure aren't I?'_ she asked the statue mentally while placing a soft hand on the stone dragon's leg. The large stone dragon didn't move, '_like it would have'_ Mulan snorted sarcastically, and Mulan leaned against it for a moment, feeling some comfort come from the stone protector before she moved towards the ancestral temple, crossing another small bridge. She hopped over to some of the railing then moving to the other side and hopping down to continue on. Landing, Mulan let go of the proportion of the dress she had lifted when she was hopping on the railing while she walked over the rest of the bridge then made a quick time towards the temple, even though she had been walking slowly.

Once she arrived at the temple, Mulan lowered herself to her knees and bowed her head in respect to the Fa family ancestors. She felt a little calmer after she looked up to the names of the past Fas and then saw _her _reflection, the painted woman. Using the sleeve on her dress, Mulan wiped half of the makeup off and saw half of herself then made face at it before wiping the rest of it away then saw the rest of herself.

'_There. _This_ is me. _This_ is Fa Mulan' _she thought while she reached forward and touched the engravings. Another sigh escaped her when she pulled back from it and moved her hands up to release her hair. In long, black waves, Mulan's hair fell down from the top of her head to her back and over her shoulders. She smiled lightly at the sight then stood up to leave, bowing her head at her ancestors once more as she left. The young Fa moved towards a seat in the garden and gracefully sat down on the stone seat that was perched before a blossom tree.

She sat alone for a while before she heard footsteps coming up the path. She could tell it was her father due to how the steps sounded and because there was the sound of his wooden cane that came along with one side from where he added pressure to the wood as he leaned on it. Zhou sat next to her and smiled at her, but Mulan looked away from him, feeling the shame come back as she sat in the presence of her father. A frown came across Zhou's face before he looked up at the tree and began speaking, "My, my, what beautiful blossoms we have this year."

Mulan gave him a soft look before she started playing with the ends of her hair, though she smiled a tiny bit as she realized her father was trying to comfort her. Her father continued when he saw a blossom that hadn't opened yet, "But look, this one's late. But, I'll bet that when it  
blooms, it will be the most beautiful of all" he stated and smiled at his daughter while pulling a blossom down and putting in her hair, behind her ear. Mulan smiled fully now and turned to her father, giving him a heartwarming smile.

'_There's the look I was looking for'_ Zhou thought as he moved closer to Mulan and hugged her softly. Mulan returned it and laid her head against her father's chest, much like she did when she had been a child. That small moment between father and daughter was broken when they heard noises coming from outside their compound, in the middle of the small community.

"What is it?" Mulan asked when she recognized drums being the noise they had been hearing.

'_Drums...soldiers' _she said to herself and moved with her father towards the gates, whatever the soldiers were doing here for, she had a feeling that it wasn't going to be good news since soldiers didn't come for a social greet.

"Mulan stay inside" was the first thing that she heard come from her mother since leaving town, this wasn't good. She turned to her grandmother and saw her motioning to a smaller ledge that was easy to climb and she quickly moved towards it and pulled herself up to peer over to see the soldiers gathered in two neat lines. a few carrying the flags of the emperor and a man on a horse that stood in the center of the gathering of the people in the community, all were looking at him just as he saw the last of the community men come out to greet him and hear his news.

"Citizens I bring you a proclamation from the Imperial City: the Huns have invaded China!" the man stated, giving away that he was important and was probably not far from the emperor himself so he was giving news that wasn't false. The community gasped and Mulan felt her eyes widen at it.

"No" she whispered softly, this wasn't good, they were gathering soldiers and...she looked over to her father and saw him clutching his cane, he knew what it was, he had been overly valuable in the last war he served in, having been a promising soldier that worked under General Li before his time was up and he had been sent home with his injury.

'_No, no, no' _Mulan thought as the man on the horse pulled out a scroll and started stating something that made her heart drop, "By order of the Emperor, one man from every family must serve in the Imperial Army" meaning, as he read from the list of names of the families in the community, her father...

'_It, can't be. He _can't_ return'_ Mulan thought as she moved off the roof and hurried towards the gate.

* * *

**Me: **Hiya! Glad that I have some readers on this and not doing this for no reason. ^^

Well as you see I'm not doing this _quite_ like the movie, adding in things and changing some scenes up as such, heck this whole story is basically AR so I'm using my creative license and making it fit my look for it and, as it's put up in the summary and all that junk in the beginning, it's giving me a chance to take a closer look at the great villain Shan-Yu when the time arrives from what I see him as. So yea, I hope ya keep reading and enjoy this story :)

*Cào - 'Fuck' in Mandarin Chinese, can be used as a Sexual Intercourse profanity or like how I used it as to express something, this being a bad thing at the current usage ;)


End file.
